﻿The Class

Welcome to U.S. History, Beginnings - 1877. This is the first or two U.S. History courses that students will need to pass, before graduating high school. Most students will take the second U.S. History course in the Sophomore or Junior year of high school.

In this course, students will touch on the history of how the first Americans came to populate the Americas through the Civil War and Reconstruction. In between, we'll learn about European Exploration of the "New World", The American Revolution, the beginnings of our nation and how it came to expand across the continent. We'll pay homage to the people who struggled, fought and worked to build this nation and analyze what's happening now in the U.S. Click here to visit the SCPS social studies curriculum page.

Below are the basics for how Mr. Danner's version of this course will operate. Please take a moment to read through each tab and feel free to reach out with any questions, concerns or comments (Joe_Danner@scps.k12.fl.us). You can also learn a little about Mr. Danner himself on "The Teacher" page of this website (check the menu at the top of this page).

The 3 A's

The Rules

The Resources

The Binder

The Passport

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How to be AWESOME!

Students of Life: Every student in this class is a student of U.S. History, at least during the time they are present in this classroom. However, no matter where you are, every single person is a student of life, at least for about 100 years. So, how can we make the best of the day-to-day minutes of those 100 years? As you will learn in this video, Neil Pasricha think's he has the perfect formula, and he sums it up with three simple words, all that begin with the letter "A". Watch Neil's TEDtalk on The 3 A's of Awesome, and think about how you can apply them to your last year here at Milwee.

Let's keep this simple...

In the following order: respect yourself, respect others and respect the property of others.

Arrive to class on time, prepared to work, with paper and an erasable writing utensil.

Be AWESOME!, and work to embody the 3 A's of Awesome.

Know your resources... AND USE THEM!

This class uses lots of different digital resources, but the main ones are listed below. Students will use these tools on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, and should get to know how to use them. A quick link to each of these resources can be found in the footer of any page on AwesomeDanner.com. Other resources will be introduced as the class moves forward.

Setting Up Your Binder

Every student is responsible for keeping an up-to-date history binder. The first page in each history binder should be the How To Reference Sheet. This sheet is super important, because it shows students how they are expected to write sentences (complete answers) and paragraphs (Using PEEL), and conduct research (Using CARS).

Following the Reference Sheet, students will need to have their 3 tab dividers:

Blog - Students will keep any work that they complete from "The Blog" in this section. Most of this work will consist of review questions, quizzes and tests.

Tree - Students will keep any work that they complete from Tree Of Ed in this section. Most of this work will consist of classwork and homework assignments.

Geo - Students will keep their Geo notes and quizzes in this section.​ ​

Finally, students will be completing vocabulary cards throughout the year. Students will need to punch holes in the top left corner of their cards and keep them on a loose leaf ring (provided by Mr. Danner), like the image shown here. This ring of cards should be attached to the top ring of the student's binder.

Set your Vocab cards like this

Do Not Lose Your Passport!

We are going on a journey through time, and like any great adventure, we need an itinerary. Our U.S. History Passport will serve as that itinerary. This Passport is a detailed map of where we want to go, and what we want to accomplish. It also serves as our travel log, or a journal to reflect on each unit.

Every single student will get their own Passport and they will use it nearly everyday of the year. It is super important that students do not lose their Passport. It should not go home. Write your name, period and teacher at the bottom of the cover, and keep it in the pocket of your binder.